When I was younger I wasn’t in the least bit superstitious. I never bought into the hocus-pocus of good luck this and bad luck that.

I did have a rabbit’s foot key chain, but not because I thought it was a lucky rabbit’s foot. After all, it wasn’t too darn lucky for the rabbit it came from. I had it because it was dyed blue and matched my pocketbook.

My mother was, however, superstitious, and since I grew up with some very weird bad luck omens that may be partly why I shunned them so much.

My mother never told me not to sit on the table because it was bad manners. For her it was just plain bad luck and had a little saying of warning: “If you sit on the table, you’ll be married before you’re able.” Therefore, I sat on the table every time I had a new boyfriend. I was stupid and naive enough to think getting married as a teenager was way cool.

Fortunately for me, the table sitting had no impact and whoever the boyfriend was, he usually became history by the time the table was set for the evening meal.

Another of my mother’s little ditties was “If you sing before breakfast you’ll cry before supper.” Well, considering that this was often said to me when I sang along with Romper Room School and was 4 or 5 years old at the time, odds were pretty good that I would cry before supper. At that age, the odds were pretty good that I would cry before supper whether I sang before breakfast or not.

The superstition that my mother was the most adamant about was: “Bad things come in threes.” If there was a fire in our small town, not a rare occurrence, but not too frequent either, my mother would always say, “There will be two more fires; they always come in threes.” It might have taken a year and a half before there would be two more fires and one of those might be a small brush fire, but that was enough for my mother to feel vindicated.

I laughed at my mother and her superstitions for years, but I’m not laughing as much anymore. I, the doubter, have started being a bit superstitious myself.

Oh, I never walked under ladders; not because of superstition, but because if someone is on it handling paint or tools, something could fall. That’s just good common sense.

I’m not really leery about the bad luck superstitions, but I do seem to be hanging on to things I perceive as good luck. For example, I have a necklace that I like and used to wear occasionally. Then one day when I had the necklace on something really good happened. I didn’t relate it to the necklace then, but the next time I wore it I had another really good day. Now I wear it most of the time and feel a bit anxious if I realize I’m not wearing it and I have to speak in public or deal with something very important.

Not long ago I found a penny, heads up, and picked it up. Later that day I used it on a scratch ticket, which turned out to be a $1,000 winner. I know that the ticket would have been a winner no matter what I scratched it with, but I now keep that lucky penny in my pocket all the time, just in case.

I don’t know what the need for a talisman says about me; I was never a believer in such things in the past. Maybe as I get older I’m not as keen on letting fate rule the day. I’ll take whatever hedges for good luck that I can.

I still do not consider myself to be a superstitious person, but the way I see it, a few good-luck charms can’t hurt. I guess I’ll put on my lucky necklace, put my lucky penny in my pocket and go buy a scratch ticket. And, if good things happen to come in threes as the bad things do, well, I guess maybe I’ll just buy three of them.